At the beginning of my work, was mostly interested in engaged art in public space,. For me, the main inspiration were the works of action artists from the Eastern block. I primary used to considered art as a set of aesthetic, political and social aspects and individual outputs. Since 2010 I have actively cooperated with artist Cyril Blazo. Later, I started to work with Tomas Benedict and with others. Today, an important dimension of my work is humor, banality. This individual unity encodes into new contexts. On the one hand, it is a fair analytic conceptual work. On the other hand, it is not concentrated freestyle a bastard creation of multiple outputs, oscilating from monumental to momental. I think that today you can not think about my work as a single, comprehensive character - „brand“, but rather an attempt to communicate across the broadness of hybrid languages and across media.

Cooperation

Since 2010 I have actively cooperated with artists Cyril Blazo. At regular "survey" of public space of Slovak towns, we have found inspiring images and situations. Based on these,we created an improvisational method of creating images that are funny and are also irony and critical reflection of the public space.

Specific knowledge

Interests

References

Mgr. art Michal Moravčík
PhDr. Vladimír Beskid

Deposit

In my installation I brought some things from my parent´s basement. I also adapted a wooden imitation of a block of flats for the interior of bunker in Nitra. Inside the basement, there were basic items, usually found in these kind of places, like old shoes, sport equipment, tools, various materials but also some artistic objects, which are stored in our family basement. In my opinion, a basement in block of flats has the same role as a deposit in a gallery. Tennants store there their objects, keep records about them and during holidays and anniversaries, they use them.

Non-historical town of Banská Štiavnica

I created a concrete object called "non-historical core of Banská Štiavnica" for the event "The invisible Štiavnica". It represented a housing estate Drieňová in the scale 1:500. Originally I meant to install it in the centre of the town, as an alternative to traditional tourist locations, the descriptive models of historical centres, replicas and sculptures. Finally, I chose a different place, with a view on the Drieňová housing estate, with a neutral nature, non-defined by predetermined function, which enables us to percieve the work without irony and recession.

I live in a housing estate in Trnava town, which often inspires me to process the theme of collective housing in block of flats. I worked with this theme in the form of photographic series of geometric structures of insulation. One of my creative intervention in the public space was also monumental sculpture "Antimonument".

In 2013 a model of historical centre of author´s hometown was placed in one of the town squares. The trend of placing bronze historical models as a tourist and information points, has not arrived to Banská Štiavnica. I therefore took the lead by realization of "Antimonument", which draws attention to the modern "non-historical core" of Banská Štiavnica.

I try to think of housing estates in a broader context and associates various themes with the concept of existence in our cultural environment. On one hand, I recognize the function in the vision of cheap collective housing of previous political regime, but on the other hand, I notice the disproportionate market growth of this type of housing after the fall of totalitarianism. I assume, the state does not create adequate regulations and sensible housing policy for young families, paving the way for the indebtness of families. There is also a lack of culture in this environment, which is centralized into the historical core of the town. This trend acts antisocially and turns housing estates into ghetto.

Landscape

Landscape painting (lenght: 28minutes, cut: Ján Šebík) by Martin Kochan is a multi-coded play. Title of the work is based on the historical genre of painting reinterpreted and updated by author. Traditional genre is here interpreted literally as naive and "raw". Kochan enters the countryside, paints the surface of the trees with lime and therefore multiplies the colorful fracture of birches. Applying lime on the surface of trees is commonly used in horticulture as a protective layer. In this sense, Kochan becomes a kind of healer, who takes care of the forest. He repeats the duct natural color of bark, respecting nature and the countryside. That is a non-violent intervention and revelation of a strange lyrical expression. It is a melancholical and romantic gesture, presented in the senselessness of conducting an action. Another level of understanding the work is opened at the moment, when Kochan operates with terminology of art history and thus enters the sphere of institutional practice. The record as a relation to the "painting" can be seen as a secondary output documenting intervention in the countryside. With this work, Kochan enters the land of the institutional debate on the specifics of media paintings, which ultimately allows us to state intervention itself called painting.

Supercompostion

Exhibition "Supercomposition" was realized in the gallery Photoport (April, 2015), under the tutelage of Lucy Miklošková. It was a presentation of a series of photographs titled Thermal insulation – supercompostions. Views originated through spatial collages, drawing in architectural angles at which the different "prefabricated" objects overlap, so that created the illusion of a purely abstract compositions.

Supercompostions (summer 2015) were exhibited at the joint exhibition with Roman Gajdoš called geometries in 2016. It was curated by Vladimír Beskid and it was a collection of photos taken in residential areas. These are photographic cutouts and vistas to the geometry of the insulated block of flats. Our main work was a collection of four photographs with a common geometry, but different color. Subsequently, the color theme of one of these photos (Supercompostitions / insulation II) was used as a motive for a dress. In addition, at the exhibition were also presented the four drawings on the theme of blocks of flats (The birth of block of flats, The Kite, The holiday scattering and Stadium).

Insulation of the bus stop, 2014

By thermal insulation of blocks of flats in our neighborhoods, we try, at least visually, to correct the deficiencies and inherited greyness of the former regime. Insulation of a new bus stop creates an absurd situation, when the function itself is lost in the open space. Martin Kochan cynically responds on purpose of paid work, created by pointless surplus labor. The work, however, reveals more leves that are normally hidden from view. Because of glass, we can see the paintings which are inside and which is created by sticking insulation material on the glass. This gives our anonymous master builder an artistic status and quality.

Crust, 2014

This is an intervention into the stand of the former monument to V. I. Lenin on the Freedom Square in Banska Bystrica, which now serves as an outdoor gallery. Pedestal of the monument is made of brown-red marble and after the change of the regime, The statue of Leniin was removed from there. After the removal of the statue, a hole remained in the memorial. I decided to make a scrub on the place where the statue was pulled down. The scrab has become for me a metaphore for propagandistic art that is kept in a public space like an injury. The artist becomes only a stupid tool for the regime, used only for marking of teritory of the leading political party. The work itself ends in the background. After the change of political regime, metaphorically it falls off, like scab (People shed their propaganda ritual statue as an act of liberation). Curator Nina Šošková helped me to present antimonument "Scrab" to public.

At the beginning of my work, was mostly interested in engaged art in public space,. For me, the main inspiration were the works of action artists from the Eastern block. I primary used to considered art as a set of aesthetic, political and social aspects and individual outputs. Since 2010 I have actively cooperated with artist Cyril Blazo. Later, I started to work with Tomas Benedict and with others. Today, an important dimension of my work is humor, banality. This individual unity encodes into new contexts. On the one hand, it is a fair analytic conceptual work. On the other hand, it is not concentrated freestyle a bastard creation of multiple outputs, oscilating from monumental to momental. I think that today you can not think about my work as a single, comprehensive character - "brand", but rather an attempt to communicate across the broadness of hybrid languages ​​and across media.

Insulation, 2014

The work was created in PROGR center in Switzerland organized by Banská Štiavnica Contemporary and supported by Ministry of culture of Slovakia and by Stadt Gallery in Bern. Here I discussed the topic of insulation of housing estates. I painted the handkerchiefs which I hanged one next to other. I chose handkerchiefs deliberately because such material is closer to me than traditional canvas. In the beginning, I was in Banská Štiavnica, painting according to the insulated panel house. I intuitively inscribed the gray brush strokes to the areas of unfolded napkins. I put handkerchiefs over a radiator and the hot air put them into motion. White painting on handkerchiefs reminded me of a housing estate. In the final composition I painted two handkerchiefs in the center. This developed an impression of windows on the block of flats. The project was developed by Katarina Gatialová, curator of the gallery Plusmínusnula in Zilina.

Kite Dragon

Kite Dragon This work will take place in Kosice on a housing estate near Kuzmányho exchanger Štítová, in which author Martin Kochan tried to combine two opposite standing prefabs by colored cotton thread. 150 windows from one prefab were combined with cotton thread over the other one. The artwork reminds kite dragon so name of this work is derived from it. Apart from the author himself residents of the flats also participated on making this artwork. They could choose the color of thread and they tied thread on the doorknob and then threw it out of the window. In addition to the actual work, the author and people acquainted with cultural activities exchanger Štítová on the estate.

After the uninstallation of my artwork from the block of flats at the exchanger the volunteers by mistake disentangled the bundle of yarn, which I planned to exhibit again. As a satisfaction the same volunteers from the exchanger in Kosice knitted a hat for me which I wear during winters.

"PETráž"

The installation is created by colored lemonade in plastic bottles between bars in the arcade of Ostrava Museum in winter 2014. The work associated the colors which reacted on movement of visitors. It was created for Lauby gallery. Curator of installation was Tomáš Knoflíček.

Burning Dustbin – Monument of Liberty was accomplished for the event called White Night, Night of Contemporary Art, Košice 2012. White Night is an event offering space for presentation of light art in public space. In this work, I opened the topic of street lighting by means of object in which I combined a classical dustbin with a flame taken from the motif of the Statue of Liberty. It is a combination of the “high” (flame of the Statute of Liberty monument) and the "low" (dustbin). It is something that functionally serves for waste and a part of something that serves as a reference point, for navigation. Monument of Liberty shows the flame illumination the path to freedom, metaphor of freedom or memory of the past. Dustbin represents the object that is being filled, emptied and that changes its position on wheels. It is the place of deposition, discarding, storing useless things, boxes, containers waiting for recycling, renewal. Burning dustbin is a sign of rebellion; it serves as a barricade during demonstrations in the world or as a means of protection against violence, firing. It is a kind of alternative, flexible monument of liberty, light, resistance and friendship. Since the object has an autonomous built-in source of power and it is on wheels – it was up to people where they installed it during White Night 2012.
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Illuminating Trnava

Illuminating Trnava To commemorate the events of November 89 in Trnava in 2011 I decided to light the welcome sign by Milan Dobeš located at the entrance to the city of Trnava. The light welcome sign by Milan Dobeš dates back to the late eighties and at the beginning of a new regime it stopped lighting and started to decay. It consists of the sign Trnava built on steel bars. Using a ladder I installed one torch under each letter of the sign to make the sign TRNAVA to shine again after many years. My intervention in someone else´s work, which was, just as most of the high-quality works in public spaces of Trnava, forgotten and neglected, metaphorically “illuminated” the grassroots attempts to change and draw attention to cultural policy of the city of Trnava. The event had a positive response in the local media and one year after the publication the work came to life again thanks to the local MP Štefan Dvorský. Inspired by my intervention and following multiple complaints he arranged that this work is functional and it lights again. Milan Dobeš (1929) is an internationally recognized author of kinetic and light-kinetic objects, he is a representative of geometric abstraction in Slovakia and Czech Republic.
Read more (Revival of the welcoming board through a connection of artist and member of parliament)

Transfusion station, polystyrene, red oil paint, glue, 2011

Lentilky, 2013

"Patriot", hubcap on the car, polyester, gold and blue color, 2010

Patriot is the name of my practical diploma thesis related to the theoretical diploma thesis where I dealt with the status of art in public space in the city of Trnava after 1989. In my practical thesis I made one wheel cover for the right wheel of my parents´ car (silver Skoda Fabia). There was the historic emblem of the city of Trnava (cart wheel with a Byzantine ring and Christ´s head in the centre) on the wheel cover. I moved and displayed it in the city where I studied and presented it as a sculpture in a public space. The sculpture referred to the culture of the town I come from (Christian values, family and tradition after 1989). With this work I also tried to go beyond public art and figurative sculpture as I presented it as a whole during its migration. There are many paradoxes in my work. There is "The Good Soldier Schwejk´s” fiction of patriotism on one hand and on the other hand the mere functionality of the city emblem perishes with its movement thus getting a new, abstract, non-ideological resemblance, which I, myself, like more.

Art and political order, diploma thesis, 2010

I descended a mine – namely the hereditary drainage tunnel Glanzenberg in Banská Štiavnica. There are numerous memorial plaques in the mine commemorating visits by public personalities – scientists, politicians, kings, miners from all over the world. Among the historical plaques there was a plaque installed in 2003 dedicated to the visit of former president Rudolf Schuster and representatives of the Slovak cultural community. Next to the president, among the personalities eternized on the plaque there were several representatives of socialist realism and prominent chieftains of normalization in the arts such as the sculptors Ján Kulich, Tibor Bártfay and Arpád Račko. I took a picture of the plaque and sent two requests to the Bureau of Mines and the Municipal Office of Banská Štiavnica in which I asked for correction of the text. Specifically, I requested to remove the word eminent in the opening text of the plaque that was installed after the visit of Rudolf Schuster. In addition to sending the letters, I publicly displayed both requests in the premises
of the Mine Station Contemporary in Banská Štiavnica together with the copy of the memorial plaque with the flash reflection on the word "eminent" /významných/.

This object was realized in Trnava in 2007; in this way I responded to the monument installed in the city center. The monument was dedicated to the communism victims and it looked like a cake with a wreath and candles. I covered it with a copy of a building panel from a block of flats which I made in 1:1 scale. It was a symbolic shift of outskirts to the city center. I can see the panel that I chose for covering the monument from the window of my block of flats and I chose it because there were the most drawings on it. This abstract drawing was created by workers who fixed the cracked panel walls of the house with a white sealant. I made a copy of the panel from outer and inner side and leaned it against the monument. Through this gesture I pointed out that the real victims of communism are living in these blocks of flats. And 17 years after the Velvet Revolution the city of Trnava created other victims; this time I do not mean people who have to live in poor architecture, these are victims of the newly made object of art that is silly with its ideological reference to the nineteenth century through hymnal texts on plates fitted to the sides of the monument and the crack-opened cube with the chain ant the wreath.

Snow, 2013

The exhibition was conducted in the area AMT. Project curator of it was Lucia Gavulová. The exhibition was compiled from photos, of which the common denominator was the snow. The supporting were the images of interventions. On the one, I stuck snow on the block of flats, that I intuitively illustrated additional lines alongside lines formed by cracked sealing flat panels. This abstract painting refers to the work of Antimonument (2007) in which I covered the newly constructed monument with the imitation of the panel from block of flats. Among other interventions documented in the photographs is a removal of snow from the field - outside the area for walking - thus creating a white cross, or sketching designs on dew-covered car window while driving, which resulted in the sudden appearance of the countryside behind the window blurred by motion. At the exhibition was also presented an object named "Magorák" – a teapot, in which until the end of the exhibition was black tea.

Apartment politics, manipulated photography, 2004 - 2010

The skyscraper –type blocks of flats started in 2004 as a reaction to a new floor built on top of one block of flats in the housing estate of Družba. The point is the irony that I have shifted into this kind of esthetical bizarre position. At the same time, the project introduces the criticism of the Slovakian “capitalism”, that builds its existence on the foundations of the previous regime and is incapable of bringing any new and progressive features into the public space. These formations were created when I wasn’ t very skilled in Photoshop (more specifically in the usage of ruler tools), and after some time, when I got back to these files, I just exaggerated its original asymmetry.

Televízory, digital photography, 2009

KOCHAN

Unity, digital photography, 2012

Pub Art

The exhibition "Art Pub" was premiered as a series of drawings created during the last two years in the hospitality of pubs with artists Cyril Blazo. Freehand drawing arose spontaneously. I was the joint work in which we showed motives of pubs - beer, weather, toys in children's corner and linked linking them with socio-philosophical associations, often mocking situations that we freely discussed. We later expanded these drawings to redraw printed materials and publications, thematically focused on hunting, safari, bodybuilding culture of Slovakia, or on the annual printed institutions. The exhibited drawings additionally complemented names registered on the gallery walls. The exhibition for the Stredoslovenská galéria was introduced by curator Mirka Keratová.

Homework, drawing, A4, 2010

The Homework, is a collection of drawings that was created during the time I spent working with students. I asked my students, to bring to me - as their tutor, on a weekly basis a drawing of any object they freely chose. To motivate them, I myself did the homework. Once a week, I made a drawing of an object on A4 size, each time from a different angle, it was a tape of a punk band O! Poloi.

Object

Object Guarded by Dog, Outdoor Gallery, Nitra, 2011

The Object Guarded by Dog was a performance in which I was reading the cases of dismissal of directors of galleries that took place during twenty-one years in Slovakia. While reading the individual cases my dog was chain-attached to the object – the stand of Outdoor Gallery in Nitra that the dog guarded temporarily during the event. It was also a metaphor for cultural policy in Slovakia for the past 21 years. Regional politicians act as watchdogs supervising the “correct” operation of cultural institutions. In the text, I critically reflected the situation in public cultural institutions such as galleries, theatres and libraries that are under the pressure from regional politicians who control both their finances and professional activities. I expressed my view that cultural policy in Slovakia should be free and independent as it is funded from our taxes. The practices of the cases mentioned in the texts I read I labeled as unacceptable and vulgar, putting the art and the science of art in the position of an ideological toy with a clear aim to get a political dominance and power over a public institution. I remarked that the public galleries are a professional, not primarily entertaining or “moralistic” territory. At the end of the event, symbolically, I left the dog collar and leaflets on the stand. Leaflets contained information that I read at the opening. And the dog owners were informed that they can also attach collars to their pets and thus find themselves in the role I demonstrated during the opening.
Read more info about exhibition

Theatre of support Beskid, performance, Theater of Ján Palárik in Trnava, Trnava, 2008